Wagst du es nun, o Seel’

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by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Translation © by Bertram Kottmann

The Unknown Region

(Sung text for setting by W. Schuman)

See original

Language: English

Our translations: FRE GER

Darest thou now O Soul,
Walk out with me toward the Unknown Region,
Where neither ground is for the feet
   nor any path to follow?

No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh,
   nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.

I know it not O Soul;
Nor dost thou -- all is a blank before us;
All waits, undream'd of, in that region,
   the inaccessible land,
The unknown region..

 ...

Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3 of the original text.

Note: the indented lines have been broken off from the preceding lines so that parallel translations will be easier to see. This poem has five stanzas of three lines each.

Composition:

William Howard Schuman

Carols of Death

Text Authorship:

by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Darest thou now O Soul"

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2018, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 133

Wagst du es nun, o Seel’

(Sung text translation for setting by W. Schuman)

See original

Language: German (Deutsch) after the English

Wagst du es nun, o Seel’,
mit mir zu gehn in Neues, Unbekanntes,
wo weder Stand ist für den Fuß,
   noch Wege sind, zu wandern?

Nichts dort führt uns und weist,
niemand dort spricht, noch hält dich eine Hand,
und keine Wange blüht, kein Mund,
   kein Blick in diesem Land.

Ach Seel’, ich weiß es nicht,
noch weißt es du - nur Leere vor uns liegt;
und Unerahntes uns erwartet -
   im unerreichbaren Land.

 ...

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Note: the text above is taken from stanzas 1-3 of the original text.

Text Authorship:

Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2018 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
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Based on:

a text in English by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892), "Darest thou now O Soul"
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This text was added to the website: 2018-04-20
Line count: 20
Word count: 116